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bne February 2018 Southeast Europe I 47
Turkish banker Atilla convicted in Iran sanctions-busting case bne IntelliNews
Huseyin Korkmaz, 30, related how the investigation first focused on the scheme operated by Turkish-Iranian gold and currency trader Reza Zarrab, but then expanded to include dozens of other people. Erdogan was the top target in a group that also included former econo- my minister Mehmet Zafer Caglayan and ex-CEO of Halkbank Suleyman Aslan.
Korkmaz said he fled Turkey after he was reassigned from the case to work as a guard on a bridge and then jailed for a year after Erdogan responded angrily to the investigation and it was shut down. Korkmaz said he hired a smuggler to get him out of the country with a cache of investigative materials which he turned over to American law enforcement offi- cials who helped bring him to the US.
Zarrab pleaded guilty to charges in
the case and gave evidence for the prosecution in return for leniency. He told the jury that Erdogan personally ordered two Turkish banks be cut in on the laundering scheme, and that when prime minister he ordered the restart- ing of Zarrab's scheme after the Turkish investigation was halted.
Caglayan has previously made public statements denying he was involved in any wrongdoing claimed by investigators.
On December 1, Istanbul prosecu-
tors ordered the seizure of assets of Zar- rab, 34, who previously lived in Istanbul
Turkey’s foreign ministry on December 4 said a New York jury’s decision to convict Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla for helping Iran evade sanctions was “unjust and unfor- tunate” and was based on fake evidence.
Although he has not been accused by prosecutors of any wrongdoing, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was implicated during the four-week trial as having been aware of a complex billion- dollar operation based on a sprawling money laundering network that enabled payments for Iranian oil and gas sales to illicitly make their way to Tehran.
Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy CEO of Turkey’s state-controlled Halkbank, was convicted on five of six counts he faced, including bank fraud and conspiracy to vio- late US sanctions law, in Manhattan federal court on December 3. He was found not guilty on a money laundering charge.
In a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry said: “It is an unjust and unfortunate devel- opment that Halkbank Deputy General Manager Mehmet Hakan Atilla was found guilty. The US court, in a process carried out by relying on so-called ‘evidence’, which is fake and open to political exploita- tion... has committed an unprecedented interference in Turkey’s internal affairs.”
The trial has greatly strained diplomatic relations between Ankara and Wash- ington, DC. Erdogan made efforts to persuade the Obama administration and then the Trump administration to halt the investigation behind it, arguing that the probe was the result of a conspiracy by his Gulenist political opponents, but his appeals proved in vain.
Halkbank said in a statement that Atilla had the right to appeal against the deci- sion, that the bank had not been a party to the US case and that no financial
or administrative decision had been
“Erdogan became the “number one” target of
a bribery and money laundering probe in Turkey”
taken against it by the court. Further, it denied any wrongdoing and said all its transactions were in line with local and international law.
During the trial, a former Istanbul
police officer that fled Turkey testified that Erdogan became the “number one” target of a bribery and money launder- ing probe in Turkey that, prior to the US investigation, explored hidden payments to Iran that dodged sanctions.
with his pop star wife but was grabbed by US law officers when he came to the US for a DisneyWorld holiday with his family in Florida. Assets of Zarrab's fam- ily were also seized on the basis that an investigation had been launched against the trader. Turkish media outlets quoted Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim as saying after the assets seizure that his hope was that Zarrab would "turn back from his mistake" in co-operating with US prosecutors.
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